National Broadband Network

Date Stamp:: 14 April 2009
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Are you keen for the Australian Government to become a Telco?

Last week, the Australian Government announced that it would:

establish a new company that will invest up to $43 billion over eight years to build and operate a National Broadband Network source

(Did you know we had a Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy? which gives a nice domain name of dbcde.gov.au. I would suggest that they change their name to the Agency of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.)

Two concerns came to my mind when I heard this announcement:

The cost to taxpayers if the return is not what the Government expect. The return may not be what the Government expect because:
- Their network will duplicate network that exists in many parts of Australia. At my place, I could connect to ADSL, the Optus cable (overhead) or the Foxtel/BigPond cable (underground). With BigPond looking to up their download speeds on cable to 70-100Mbps (only in Melbourne initially), the Government’s network would have to be very competitive for me to switch (although the NBN would probably offer higher upload speeds).
- The cost of the NBN service may be prohibitive. I’ve heard that analysts expect the cost as a consumer would be twice current costs. Paul Broad from AAPT suggests “the average punter will be paying something like $200 a month for this service” ABC Lateline Business.
  
  Optus overhead cabling in a street near my house (from Google Maps, Street View) – I love the extra piece of cable hanging down, it’s still there.
Remember the furious roll-out of the Optus and Foxtel cables years ago? Foxtel was mainly going underground, but in some suburbs hung their cable from the power poles, like Optus, to reduce cost and quicken the roll-out. Many residents did not like additional overhead cables, and because of that still do not have the HFC cable in their street. The Government’s NBN is unlikely to be concerned about aesthetics, will we see another big black cable hung along our street?

On the other hand, the National Broadband Network may bring some much needed competition to the market for BigPond (current plans where we pay by volume will hopefully get a shake up) and indirectly for other media providers (wake up Australian TV stations).

I guess we will wait and see.

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categories:: Technology